| Physics and Astronomy News | July 2025
Welcome to the second edition of the Physics and Astronomy Newsletter! We hope you enjoy these articles highlighting our faculty, staff, students, and alumni who are doing exciting work.
Alumni: share your accomplishments with us! Send alumni news to physics-astronomy@uiowa.edu
| | | | Prof. Gregory Howes is the new Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, effective July 1, 2025. He succeeds Dr. Mary Hall Reno, the Erich Funke Professor in the department, who served as DEO since 2023. | | | Here's the latest news on the TRACERS mission.
| | | | The inaugural Pathfinder Project led by University of Iowa Physics and Astronomy researcher David Miles is among the projects featured in a recent report from NASA’s Heliophysics Strategic Technology Office (HESTO). | | | University of Iowa physicists have detailed interactions between magnetic field lines of the sun and Mars that may help explain how Mars turned from a warm, hospitable planet into a dry, cold, and hostile environment. Using orbital observations and evidence obtained from NASA rovers on the red planet’s surface, scientists know that billions of years ago Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere. | | | | In a recent article in Nature Communications, University of Iowa Prof. Yannick Meurice and colleagues reported the observation of a new quantum physics phase called the "floating phase," where the crystalline order is not “locked” to an underlying grid. | | | Five members of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) visited the Department of Physics and Astronomy on June 8, touring labs and facilities and learning about research programs. | | | | Several students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy were candidates for degrees at the University of Iowa Spring 2025 Commencement Ceremonies. | | | The Department of Physics and Astronomy honored several students, faculty, and staff for their achievements on April 29 at the 2025 Awards Colloquium. | | | | Three Physics and Astronomy students presented posters at the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival (SURF) on April 3 at the University Capitol Centre. | | | In this story from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arissa Khan tells about her work as an undergraduate student researcher on the Observing Cusp High-altitude Reconnection and Electrodynamics (OCHRE) Mission. | | | |
